Healing words: Writing about your breast cancer

If you have never tuned into a webcast on HealthTalk, you are missing out! I was invited to participate in a Health Now webcast last week and had such a great time with Judy Foreman, the host of Health Now. The topic was on journaling and how it can help people deal with disease, pain and other conditions. Judy is really terrific; I have enjoyed her webcasts in the past, but having the opportunity to talk to her directly was really special. Her guest was Dr. Pennebaker, who has done extensive research into the effects of writing down your thoughts and feelings to deal with medical conditions. Dr. Pennebaker’s wife is a breast cancer survivor so he could really relate to my story; thankfully, she is doing well and has also written extensively about her battle and the disease. Judy was able to relate to Dr. Pennebaker’s research and findings to a number of conditions, including breast cancer.

Judy also directed questions to me about blogging and how that has helped me deal with the disease and recovery. I have written about this before – some umpteen blog posts ago, but I see where she was going with this. The focus was on how we benefit from being open with our thoughts and feelings even if no one else reads what we write. Judy in her expert interviewing skills helped me to realize that I may be holding back a little while I’m blogging because I am so aware that others are reading what I write. Dr. Pennebaker truly feels that private journaling is the optimum practice, but I think Judy helped to point out that this public form of journaling has its place.

I realize that even though I am pretty open about what I go through and the circumstances in my life, I often leave out the deepest feelings. Oh there have been times when I have expressed my fears and fury, and you have responded to cheer me on, but for the most part I have dealt with depression and anger (like many of you). I’ve kept the deep dark thoughts close to my heart. I’ll give it more of an effort to be more open with my feelings; I think it would make things on my blog a little more interesting or depressing or ridiculous, but you can decide.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathy-Ellen Kups, RN

Kathy-Ellen is a Registered Nurse living in Michigan. In 2003, Kathy-Ellen was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. She was cancer-free from April 2004 until December of 2013 when it was discovered that...read more